Corporal Huss looked out over the fields surrounding Bogenhafen, gripping his halberd tighter. Arrayed across the field, he could see the ravening hordes. All was eerily quiet. The 12th Bogenhafen Halberdiers stood strong at the gate, their courage bolstered by the reinforcements who had reached the city. Huss didn’t think much of the Baron, but at least he had reached the Brettonian Duke. They must be close. The city would hold. But then suddenly came the roar – Huss stared in horror as a section of the wall collapsed . It was the gods forsaken Night Goblins! They had collapsed the tunnels! The wall fell, taking the Tilean Crossbowmen down into the rubble. As one, the lines of Chaos and Orcs began to chant, pounding their shields. The regiment began to waver. Huss could see the fear in Leopold’s eyes. Johann cowered behind the wall. Seigfried even turned to run. As despair gripped him, Huss heard something. Horns. And not Orc horns! In the far distance, a shimmering light was approaching – the Brettonians! Huss’s courage was rekindled. Huss growled out to his section “CHAOS WILL SMASH ITSELF AGAINST THE ANCIENT STONE AND IRON WILL OF THE EMPIRE!” Taken by the fervor of the moment, he added, “BY SIGMAR’S HAIRY BALLS, I SWEAR IT!” His men hefted their halberds and waited for the attack.
The Chaos lord Belsnick surveyed the rabble about him. Orcs were useful cannon fodder at best, dangerous liabilities at worst. But the love of Papa Nurgle must be spread to the city. The preparations had not gone well, the construction of the siege towers was behind schedule. At least the greenskins had managed to get into the caves. The Orc warlord Grisnak grunted “Let’s just go get ’em, wut are we waitin around for?” Belsnick did not even deign to answer. A maurader outrider entered- “Warlord, the knights have been spotted, they will reach the city by the afternoon.” Belsnick rose. “Well warboss, you have your wish. Tell your goblins to collapse the mines.” He rose, the chaos marks beginning to ooze with pus in anticipation of what is to come.
The Duke pulled up the reins of his hippogriff. The Imperial City lay before him. Why had his quest led him here? Could the honorless men of the Empire be worth saving? For a moment, he considered turning to go. Then he saw it- just a glimpse, a glowing aura of a chalice above the city. Surely a sign of the Lady! Whatever the cost, this was the next step on his quest. “Forward, brave knights, for the lady!”
This was the culmination of our Warhammer Siege and Warmaster mini campaign inspired by the old Warhammer siege rules that came out in 6th edition around the time of the general’s compendium. You can read part 1 of our campaign here Bogenhafen Burns: A Warmaster and Warhammer Skirmish Siege Campaign (Part 1). We hope to polish up the rules and post them soon. We’ll also be running a variant of this at Unioncon!
In part 1, the besiegers attempted to choke off the city and gain their advantage. First, a team of goblin infiltrators tried to break into the city to destroy and burn the supply warehouses, but were defeated! Next, a small chaos force attempted to force one of the city gates and smash it down, but were defeated by a hastily assembled group of defenders. Finally, the combined Orc and Chaos forces had some success with a team of night goblin tunnelers managing to undermine the walls (which would result in a destroyed wall section at the start of the game.
The besieged forces of men had had better luck. First, they sent a messenger out of the city to send for aid, breaking through the chaos lines (this would give the Empire general additional LD for raising the morale of the troops). Next, the Brettonian advance force attempted to break into the city, bringing needed reinforcements. They got 250 points of troops into the walls in a daring dash! Finally, the cannons on the walls bombarded the forces, but to no effect.
Count Angerworm, Duke Draugr, Warlord Bonespoon, and Warboss Broheim gathered to play out our final assault scenario! We’ll publish this soon, but briefly it represents the final assault as the combined orc-chaos forces try to break into the city, while keeping the reinforcements out of their camp.
The defenders had 1250 points of Empire in the Wall (including their bonus reinforcements), and 1000 pts of Brettonians in the relief force. They had about 1000points of fortifications, using the Warmaster Revolutions rules.
The attackers had a little less than 1500 points of Chaos and 1500 points of orcs, with around 200 points of siege equipment and camp barricades.
The game would go 7-10 turns, or until 5 VPs were accrued by a side.
Each army broken would be 1VP, each general killed 1VP, and each objective controlled would score 1VP at the end of your turn.
The evil objectives were the city gate and two key locations in the city squares.
The good objectives were two points withing the siege camp encircling the city.
The Empire deployed first, then the forces of evil, then the Brettonians! With that the game began! The evil team selected a walls section to be destroyed, alongside the east gate.
Turn 1
The attackers got he first turn, trying to push forward towards the walls. The black orcs slowly brought forward their tower, but the general swiftly failed a leadership test, ending the phase. Choas did slightly better, a sorcerer pushing the left flank and ram forward until the Chaos general also failed his first leadership test!
The forces of good then got moving- The Brettonians deployed strongly against the Chaos left flank and pushed towards the objective there. Most shooting was still out of range, but the cannons could roar! A fireball failed to damage the black orc tower, but a unit of great cannons took aim and destroyed the tower in one go!
A second unit of cannons then aimed at the second tower… and brought that down too! The gunnery of the empire was off to a great start!
Turn 2
This turn, the chaos sorcerer had less luck, immediately failing leadership as the chaos left ground to a halt. But the general was able to get a chaos ram up against the central gate. The chaos hero guarding the camp also maneuvered to the barricades to resist the oncoming knights. A well placed Gerroff was able to create a gap int he wall, but no one could quite exploit it yet.
The orcs, towers destroyed, surged forwards with ladders and ordered the giant against the wall. The ram survived a volley from the helblaster and handgunners at the gate, and began hammering away, damaging the structure. The giant was targeted by cannons and crossbows coming in, taking four hits and going to half health! The giant attacked the crossbows but was unable to cause enough hits to take the wall, falling back.
With a battle cry, the brettonians charged into the marauders defending the camp. The empire reoccupied the walls, covering the gap created by the orcish magic. The cannons took aim at the last siege tower… and brought it down! The ram at the gate survived another round of helblastering, but the charge of the brettonian knights and squires sent the marauders falling back off the defended line, exposing the camp objective.
Turn 3
At this critical juncture, the Chaos general failed an early leadership test, leaving the second ram and dragon ogres dangerously exposed. The orcs had more success, reaching the wall with a wave of ladders. In the camp, the orcs repositioned against the Brettonians, seeking to come to the aid of the hard pressed maruaders. At the walls, the Orcs failed to cast Waaaghh, and the horde of orc failed to take the walls. In the camp, the marauders failed to stop the knights, and the boar boyz bounced from their charge!
On the good turn, the brettonian knights charged the remaining marauders in the camp while a unit of squires slipped past into the rear of the chaos left flank. The Empire gunners took aim again. This time, the cannons targeted an killed the giant! Then the second battery took aim at the ram near the gate… and destroyed that too! Things were looking bad for the Orcs and Chaos troops. The knights destroyed two stands of marauders as well, allowing them to consolidate on top of one of the camp objectives.
1 VP to the forces of good!
Turn 4
In the evil turn, the marauders brought their ram just short of the east gate. The dragon ogres also maneuvered into position, but could not reach the breach. Outside the camp, the trolls, wolf riders, and chariots hit a unit of knights and two units of men at arms. The orcs once again put up their ladders to take the walls! Once again, the forces of evil bounced from the walls but out in the field thing went much better. The trolls destroyed two units of men at arms, and the wolf chariots a unit of knights! With that, the Brettonian relief forces were broken!
1VP to the forces of Evil!
The forces of good made their decisive move. On the left flank near the east gate, the Empire knights, held in reserve, sallied forth against the marauders with ram, along with the squires! Fire from the helblaster and handguns wiped out the black orcs. Surrounded, the marauders were massacred and their ram destroyed.
Turn 5
Finally, the dragon ogres charged into some knights! The last wave of orcs hit the wall, including a unit of night goblins scaling the walls by the Bogenhafen Halberdiers. In the field, the orcs continued to mop up the brave Brettonians. However, as one last stand of marauders fell, Chaos was broken!
1VP to the forces of good!
In this final action, the forces of good sandwiched the dragon ogres. Fire from the cannons destroyed the last ram, and the orcs lost a few more stands, while the dragon ogres were destroyed. They killed just enough to break the orc army!
1VP to the forces of good!
The End
With that, we decided to call it. All the siege equipment was destroyed, and both evil armies routed. The final tally was 3 VPs to 1 VP in favor of the defenders- Bogenhafen stands! The Imperial forces were almost untouched and the walls in good shape, whereas the Brettonians were almost completely destroyed. But it had been enough!
Corporal Huss stood on the wall as the ladders went up, bracing for impact. Onto the parapet sprung a dark, hooded, gibbering figure, blades flashing in the sunlight. Memories flashed before Huss’ eyes, memories of dark tunnels and death. He cowered for a moment. But in the light of day, surrounded by his fellows, he found his courage. Looking up, he realized just how small this goblin was. With a push of his arm, he sent the creature hurtling back down onto the ground below. Looking out, he could see a field of fire and corpses. But the walls stood firm. The city would survive again, for another day…
Corporal Huss says, “No!”
We had a ton of fun doing this, and for me it was a total dream. I had long ago planned and tried to get this started back when 6th edition was the current edition of WHFB, but never got any momentum going. It was an amazing blast to revisit this, and a real privilege to have such an awesome gaming group that 1) wants to do this kind of thing and 2) just has all the bits and bobs lying around to do so! Huge thanks to angerworm, drauger, noclearcoat, and broheim for playing with me!
Cover for our next metal album
-BS